to build," which unfolds in an attractive form, the principles of good taste and good sense involved in these considerations. The book will be well appreciated by all who are about to indulge their architectural taste, as well as by professional architects.

P. H. GOSSE: The Birds of Jamaica. Post. 8vo. London, 1847. 10s. D. T. ANSTED: The Ancient World, or Picturesque Sketches of Creation; Post. 8vo, with 149 illustrations. London, 1847. 12s.

TAYLOR'S SCIENTIFIC MEMOIRS. Part 17. Containing SCHMIDT's Contributions to the Comparative Physiology of the invertebrata, being a Physiologico-chemical investigation; FRESNEL on the colors produced in homogeneous fluids by polarized light; JAMIN on Metallic Reflection; DOVE's Researches on the Electricity of Induction.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 4th part of 4th volume. 5s. The 5th part, completing the volume, will shortly appear.

REPORT OF THE SIXTEENTH MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION, London. 15s.

CATALOGUE of 47390 stars for the beginning of the year 1800, from the observations of Lalande in the Histoire Celeste; reduced at the expense of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, under the immediate superintendence of the late Francis Bailey, Esq. London, 1847.

CATALOGUE of 9766 stars in the Southern Hemisphere for the beginning of the year 1750, from the observations of the Abbe de Lacaille, made at the Cape of Good Hope in the years 1751, 1752; reduced at the expense of the Brit. Assoc. under the superintendence of the late Prof. Henderson. London, 1847.

G. JOHNSTON, M.D.: History of British Zoophytes. 2d ed. London, 1847, 8vo, 21. 2s.; or large paper, royal 8vo, 4l. 4s.

H. C. WATSON: Cybele Brittanica; or British Plants and their Geographical Relations. 8vo. London, 1847.

G. MUNBY: Flore de l'Algérie. pp. 120, 6 pl. Paris, 1847.

W. ENGELMANN: Bibliotheca Historico-Naturalis; Verzeichniss der Bücher über Naturgeschichte welche in Deutschland, Scandinavien, Holland, England, Frankreich, Italien und Spanien, in den Jahren 1700-1846 erscheinen sind. Leipzig, 1847. Erster Band.-A work of great value.

8vo.

J. BERZELIUS: Jahreschericht über die Fortschritte der Chemie u. Mineralogie. Translated from the Swedish. Gr. 8vo. Tubingen, 1847.

F. KOLENATI: Meletemata Entomologica fase. iii. and iv. (Caucasian insects.) Large 8vo, with 6 plates. Petersburg (Lipsiæ, Voss). 1847.

P. F. DE SIEBOLD: Fauna Japonica. Pisces elaborantibus C. J. Temminck et H. Schlegel. Decas xiii-xv, gr fol. Lugduni Batavorum, 1847.

PROC. AMER. PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, PHILADELPHIA, IV, No. 38. April, May and June, 1847-p. 327. On the reproduction of the Didelphis virginiana; C. D. Meigs. pp. 332, 339. On the planet Neptune and its identity with the Lalande star; S. C. Walker.

PROC. ACAD. NAT. SCI. OF PHILADELPHIA, iii, No. 9. May and June, 1847.p. 210. Numerous minute crystals in the cellular structure of several species of Parmelia, supposed to be oxalate of lime; J. Leidy.—p. 212. Remarks on an aboriginal cranium from the Western Mounds; S. G. Morton.-p. 216. Hydrarchus of Dr. Koch acknowledged by Prof. Maller of Berlin to be the Basilosaurus of Harlan and Zeuglodon of Owen.-A cutaneous gland near the root of the tail of the Fox emitting an agreeable odor, detected by Prof. Retzius, and considered by him characteristic of the genus Vulpes.-p. 220. Distoma Helicis, a new Entozoon from a Helix; J. Leidy.—p. 221. Observations on a Mexican Quail, the Ortyx squamata; J. W. Abert.

PROC. BOSTON SOCIETY OF NAT. HISTORY, March, April, 1847.—pp. 210, 214, 222. Descriptions of Shells of the Exploring Expedition, (genera Ancylus, Dombeya, Limnea, Planorbis, Physa, Melania); A. A. Gould.-p. 217. Observations on some analyses of snow.-p. 218.-Dr. C. T. Jackson exhibited beautiful crystals in cinders from the copper works at Point Shirley, which proved on analysis to be a bisulphate of Copper and Zinc --Dr. Jackson described an interesting experiment of Mr. Blake at the gas-works, as follows:-" He placed a mass of compact feldspar in a crucible, hermetically sealed, in a furnace flue at the gas-works, where it was exposed for 108 hours to a uniform temperature considerably below the degree

necessary for the fusion of the mineral. On being taken out, it was found to be perfectly limpid, and as transparent as quartz: showing that long continued heat, though not to a degree sufficient to melt the mineral, produces effects similar to those resulting from fusion."-p. 218. New shells from Burmah (Gen. Melania, Neritina, Nerita, Nematura, Unio); A. A. Gould.

ANN. AND MAG. OF NAT. HISTORY, Vol. xix, No. 127, May, 1847. Formation of Flints; J. T. Smith.-British shells; J. G. Jeffreys.-On the Genus of Insects Omias, with descriptions of new species; J. Walton.-Development of the Lycopodiacea; K. Müller-Silurian rocks in Cornwall; R. I. Murchison. -Invertebrata of the coast of Northumberland and Durham; W. King. LINNEAN SOCIETY: D. Hooker on the vegetation of the Galapagos; G. B. Sowerby, on a new Cowry; G. Newport, Anatomy, &c. of Meloë. ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: J. Gould, on new Australian Birds.-J. E. Gray on a new rat from South Australia; G. R. Gray, on new genera of Certhinæ.

No. 128, June, 1847. On Chelura terebrans, an amphipodous crustacea; G. J. Allman--Ornithological Notes; J. Blackwall.—New British Coleoptera ; J. Hardy. -New Labyrinthi-bronchial fish from Quellimane; W. Peters.-New Lepidoptera; E. Doubleday.--A species of, Pelagia in the British Seas.--New Chalcidites from N. America; F. Walker.-Two new genera of shells; Philippi.-ZOOLOG. Soc. J. Gould's arrangement of Trochilidæ, with descriptions of some new species; J. E. Gray, on six new genera of Bats; A. Adams, on certain molluscous animals; L. Reeve, new shells from the Eastern Archipelago; T. Bridges on S. American Ornithology; A. D. Bartlett on a new Fuligula.

No. 129, July, 1847. Development of the Ophiuridae and Echinidae; J. Müller. New species of insects of the genus Otiorhynchus; J. Walton.-LINNEAN SOCIETY: Dr. Falconer, on Gamoplexis, a new genus of Orchideous plants; L. Reeve, on the structure, &c., of Chiton and Chitonellus; W. Griffith on the impregnation of Dischidia; Dr. Arnott on Samara læta, L.; G. Newport on Cryptophagus cellaris.-— ZooL. Soc. J. Gould, on eight new Australian Birds; J. E. Gray, on a new Amphioxus from Borneo; W. Denny, on the Geographical Distribution of Birds in the W. Indies; J. E. Gray, on the skull of Phascolomys vombatus.

Vol. xx, No. 130, July, 1847. New genus and species of Entomostraca; G. J. Allman.—On conjugation in the Diatomacea; G. H. K. Thwaites.—Canada Plants; P. W. Maclagan.-Two Asiatic species of Carabus; T. Tatum.-Notices of British Shells; J. G. Jeffreys.-New Chalcidites of N. America; F. Walker.-Plants of Iceland; C. C. Babington.-On the power of the living plant to restrain the evaporation of the cell sap; H. v. Mohl.-On the relative duration of the power to germinate in seeds belonging to different families; A. DeCandolle.-New genus and species of Tracheary Arachnidans; G. J. Allman.-ZooL. Soc.: Notices of rare birds of N. Zealand and Australia; W. Yarrel, on the Eggs of some of the birds of Chili; J. E. Gray, on a new genus of Emydæ; A. White, on new Crustacea from the Eastern Seas; E. Doubleday, on new Lepidoptera; G. R. Gray, on Strigops habroptilus; J. E. Gray, on the genera of the family Chitonidæ.

ARCHIV FÜR NATURGESCHICHTE. Fünftes Heft, 1846.-On the Acanthocercus rigidus, a new Entomostraca of the group Cladocera; J. E. Schödler.—General review of Works and Memoirs on Insects, Spiders and Crustacea, for the year 1845; W. F. Erichson.

Erstes Heft, 1847. On the organ of the Sepia having the function of the kidney; E. Harless.-Zur Lehre von der Furchungen; A Kölliker.-On the Sepiola vulgaris; R. Leuckart.-On Tiedmannia, Octopodoteuthis and Alciopa; A. Krohn.—On the family Ecpleopoda; J. J. v. Tschudi.-Two new genera of shells, Dibaphus and Amphichana, with remarks on Cyamium, Ervilia and Entodesma; R. A. Philippi.-Peruvian Coleoptera; G. F. Erichson.

ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN GEOLOGISTS AND NATURALISTS.

THE 9th Annual Meeting of this Association, will be held pursuant of adjournment, at Boston, during the week commencing September 20th.

A large and interesting meeting is expected.

THE

AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS.

[SECOND SERIES.]

ART. XXII.—A brief Notice of the Life, Researches, and Discoveries of Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel; by Sir J. F. W. HERSCHEL.*

FRIEDRICH WILHELM BESSEL was born at Minden, July 22, 1784. His father held an office of local administration under the Prussian government (Justiz-Rath). His mother was the daughter of a clergyman, Schrader by name, at Rehme. Being one of a family of nine children, his education, though not neglected, was in no respect calculated to fit him for his future distinguished career. It is said that he showed an early disinclination for the elements of classical literature; most probably from the repulsive form in which they are usually administered to children. Be that as it may, he manifested a decided preference for, and early expertness in, arithmetic; which his father perceiving, placed him, at the age of fifteen, as an apprenticed clerk in a considerable commercial house at Bremen, (Kuhlenkamp and Sons.)

A boyish story is told of his grinding a glass with emery in a saucer, and remarking, with delight, that it in some degree concentrated the rays of the sun; perhaps in rude imitation of some process he had read of, or been told. A more decidedly characteristic anecdote is recorded, of his having in his thirteenth year, remarked, while comparing the constellations in the heavens with their representation on a planisphere, that & Lyra, marked as one

* Extracted from the Annual Report of the Royal Astronomical Society, London, 1847. 39

SECOND SERIES, Vol. IV, No. 12.-Nov., 1847.

star in the chart, consists of two, which his eye was sharp enough to distinguish separately, though at so small an interval as 3' 32". This must certainly be regarded as an uncommon proof, not only of acute vision, but of close and careful attention in a boy so young, and as manifesting that capacity for becoming earnestly interested in a subject to which the natural faculties of the mind are best adapted, which is all that can be understood by an early bent of genius.

Earnest attention and zealous occupation with the business before him, of whatever nature, seems, however, to have been a primary feature of his character. In his new situation he speedily mastered, not merely the routine of his own subordinate position, but gained a thorough insight into the general nature of the business of his firm; and, entering into all his duties with uncommon diligence, rapidly acquired the approbation and confidence of his employers; leading him to hope that the more responsible situation of supercargo, in a voyage to the French and Spanish colonies and China, might be offered to him. To prepare himself for this great object of his ambition, he commenced the study of the French and Spanish languages, and of navigation, taking for his guide in that branch, the old work of Hamilton Moore. The rules and processes of nautical reckoning delivered in that work as precepts, without their theoretical grounds, induced him to seek the latter elsewhere. He procured a popular treatise on astronomy. This directed him in the right course; and proceeding from book to book, and mastering their difficulties as best he might, he found at length an effectual bar to further progress in his entire unacquaintance with mathematics. He immediately entered on a course of mathematical reading, and now we hear no more of commercial projects, or of the voyage he had so ardently desired. Every leisure hour (and they were chiefly in the night) was devoted to astronomical and mathematical reading. Practice was also combined with theory. By the aid of a rude wooden sextant, which he got constructed by a carpenter, and a common clock, he began to make observations for time; and great was his joy when the occultation of a considerable star by the moon, which he was fortunate enough to observe, gave him the longitude of Bremen with considerable approximation. The rapidity of his progress from this time was truly astonishing. Trains of original research and learned inquiry opened out before him at an age when the generality of students, under the most favorable circumstances, hardly advance beyond the elements of science. Already in his twentieth year, he had executed the reduction of Harriott's and Torporley's observations of the comet of 1607, which has become so celebrated by the great discovery of its periodical return by Halley. These observations had been but recently rescued from oblivion by Baron Zach, in

his search among Harriott's papers, in the possession of the Earl of Egremont; and, being the first observations of this remarkable body made with any kind of instrumental aid, their reduction was an object of undeniable importance. This task Bessel executed in so masterly a manner, as to call forth the warmest eulogies from Olbers to whom he communicated them, and to excite the strongest desire in him to secure for astronomy one whose future eminence in that science he clearly foresaw, and in no sparing or measured terms predicted. This performance, his first public work, appeared in Zach's Monathliche Correspondenz, and was immediately followed by a theoretical memoir, of great importance, "On the calculation of the true anomaly in orbits nearly parabolic." So expert had he become in cometic calculations, that Olbers, having placed in his hands, on the night of the 1st of November, 1805, four observations of the comet of that year, he returned them to him the next morning, with the elements, whose calculation had occupied him only four hours.

His seven years' engagement with Messrs. Kuhlenkamp was now terminated; but, instead of entering on the mercantile world on his own account, we find him placed forthwith, at the recommendation of Olbers, as assistant to Schröter, at Lilienthal, and successor to Harding. Astronomy thus became his profession; he gave himself wholly to it, with an energy and success which very speedily placed him in the first rank of its cultivators.

This

The instruments of Schröter were better adapted for physical examination than for precise astronomical determinations. Among the more especial objects to which his attention, as an observer, was there directed, may be mentioned a series of micrometrical measures of the distances of the sixth, or Huygenian, satellite of Saturn from the ring, made with a Newtonian reflector by the aid of the projection micrometer, with a view to the better determination of the mass of Saturn and of its ring, by means of the perturbations caused thereby in the satellite's motions. work, so begun, was never subsequently lost sight of. It forms. the subject of several elaborate memoirs, the first of which appeared in the Königsberger Archiv fur Naturwissenschaften, No. 2, in which all the observed conjunctions and oppositions of the satellite, and all the recorded disappearances of the ring, are subjected to a rigorous and systematic calculation; the position of the ring itself normally determined, together with elements of the orbit of the satellite in question, and even the perturbations of its motion by the attraction of the ring and by the sun are made objects of minute inquiry. The subject was resumed as observations accumulated, especially those made with the celebrated heliometer of Fraunhofer, in three admirable papers, Nos. 193-5, No. 214, and No. 242 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. At Lilienthal, also, were made his observations of the comet of